


tainted love

by Mars_and_Moon



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Falling In Love With Someone You Shouldn't, Implied/Referenced Murder, M/M, Mentions of Death, Undercover Cop Dave, it's like...a crime au so..., semi-romanticized organized crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 14:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18874756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars_and_Moon/pseuds/Mars_and_Moon
Summary: Dave was pretty fucking certain that “any means necessary” did not include literally falling in love with one of them.Klaus Hargreeves was–he was beautiful.





	tainted love

**Author's Note:**

> {request fill from my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fuckreggiehargreeves)}
> 
> i'll take cliched title for $600, frank

_Go undercover_ , was the order he had been given,  _infiltrate the Hargreeves’ inner-circle by any means necessary and then take them down._

Dave was pretty fucking certain that “any means necessary” did not include literally falling in love with one of them. But he’d spent years–which was a fuckton of time, and Klaus Hargreeves was–he was  _beautiful_. And kinder than anyone would expect, his own safe houses filled with people with nowhere else; no conditions for them, no debt they had to owe. Just don’t give out the address and don’t give out the real name of who let you live there.

That’s where Dave had started. One of the endless faces filtering in-and-out of the safe places, his story was simple, normal among the rest of the crowd: He was alone, he had nowhere else safe. Needed a job, quickly, would be willing for anything–legal or not.

That’s where it had all started. With Dave “ _Harpaz_ ” walking into a building he hadn’t known existed–that nobody on the force had known existed. The main base they had spent years looking for, since long before Dave had joined. Back when Reginald Hargreeves himself was in charge, not the children of circumstance he had taken in.

The week ended with Dave shaking hands with a man he had only ever seen in photographs; tall, and large, with a glare that would make anyone else shake like a leaf. But Dave had a gun with  _Hargreeves_ carved into the handle and he understood what it meant; right now, if he got killed with this on him he’d die as nothing more the a liability.

He’d gotten a new gun within a month, made a name quickly under the watchful eye of the siblings. He was quiet, and he was quick. But he could make shit happen, could guess when the cops would be the most active because his father had been one and Dave would listen to him talk sometimes. If anybody wanted to question why a cop’s son was mixed up in this, they never asked.

They all knew Harpaz wasn’t his real last name, they weren’t stupid and could recognize that much. But they never figured out that he was a cop. Somehow, even with Allison scanning him up and down and up and down every time he was even close enough to be looked at. Even with Five’s quick mind, seeing every possibility of anything. Even with Diego who scammed his way into the police academy. Luther, who was only in charge by name. Vanya, the smallest. The deadliest, who almost had a normal life.

Klaus Hargreeves started looking at him after a year. Actually, he started looking long before that, but that was at the man who moved up quickly. Who nobody really knew, but would sometimes sit in on briefings people would literally kill to sit in on.

But it was something more than how a nobody had gotten trusted with important information. There was a smirk with the looking, a lip bite.  _Lustful_. No other way to say it. For a while Dave wouldn’t do anything about it.

Technically Klaus was his boss–his very crime doing boss who looked at him like a fresh steak–and if his cover was blown, he’d probably end up dead. Without a body ever being found. So, the looks were ignored. But then, one day, Dave looked back. Allowed his eyes linger along the other man, enough for it not to be misread as anything else.

_Any means necessary_.

After all, he could fake a relationship. Fake kindness. Fake enjoyment. He was here for a reason; he was good at pretending. Too good, but he could blame that on the upbringing he had been given.

It worked though. He had a sort-of-date within two months. In a dinner empty except for them and a kind waitress. It was neutral ground, between _Umbrella Activity_  and  _Commission Activity_. Dave could see why, the coffee was outstanding and the food was delicious. But it was only a sort-of date because it ended with Klaus being pulled away on some family only business.

They tried again two weeks later, after Klaus had been all but announced MIA. There was not small dinner this time. It was bigger. Could have been romantic, what with the candles and rose petals and violin music. But it felt…showy. Faker than last time. In a crowded restaurant with looks being thrown at the table the two of them shared. Less stupid jokes, more like a business meeting. Klaus didn’t wear a skirt this time, leather pants and a dressy long sleeve instead.

He still looked beautiful. But not in the way he normally did, not with the unexpected kindness and semi-secret hundred dollar bills stuffed into any homeless person’s hand he saw. He looked like a wet dream, an unattainable fantasy. Not, not the man Dave had seen eat seven donuts too quickly. Who ordered a chocolate milkshake with two straws and drank it by himself.

But Dave–he digressed. Because it didn’t matter if it seemed less real to him, as long as it felt real to Klaus. It wasn’t an actually relationship; it was “ _any means necessary_ ”. Not, romance.

 

 

There was a chilly Tuesday night in October, with hands brushing and stupid jokes, it felt less like an “ _any means necessary_ ” type thing. Less fake, less leather pants and glass of wine; more orange skirt and milkshake with two straws. It was like a date. A normal date.

Klaus’ lips–his lips were soft. A layer of lipstick covered them the first time Dave felt them against his own, but he could still feel that they were soft. He shouldn’t have let that thought enter his mind.

Everything went downhill after that. Because it Dave felt less like an undercover cop faking a relationship. More like an actual boyfriend. With flowers, and hand holding, and spending the night tangled up in limbs, whispered promises,and grazing fingers–feather soft against Dave’s skin.

Dave found that Klaus’ hands were softer then they looked; were still soft even after Dave had seen them kill someone with efficiency and skill only years of practice could attest to. Faded tattoos littered his skin, the symbols Dave could recognized from pictures in the case file he had looked at, the meanings not lost on him but overlooked all the same.

But he was always drawn to the umbrella on his wrist–the sign that he was a Hargreeves. A leading man in the operation; branded for life before he had even gotten the choice.

The words on his hands–an inside joke between him and his sisters. When Klaus actually shot a gun at other people, held knives and ended lives on orders he never actually liked. “ _Hello_ ” and “ _Goodbye_ ”.

The date above his knee–for the brother who never got a chance. Got lost in an explosion and barely got a funeral, because Reginald would never celebrate a life that could have been saved. Klaus had once whispered he wasn’t entirely sure it was an accident; he knew his brother could have gotten out on time.

Klaus Hargreeves was–he was someone Dave shouldn’t even look in the  _direction_ of. Certainly not with the tenderness he know he has; soft eyes and sweet whispers shouldn’t be directed towards a man like him; a fucking criminal with a confirmed kill list, who got crazed smiles on jobs, who could sweet talk any and every drug cartel in the city to not notice a little bit missing every so often.

But Klaus was different, Dave had never fully seen the man every newspaper and every case-file had made him into. Not the kind, funny, completely human man Dave had grown to know over two years. The man he had grown to love, not just pretend to love.

But Dave–he had a  _job_. A job that would make sure the all of the Hargreeves ended up in jail–for life most likely–and he had a schedule, and a  _law abiding job._

Dave Katz made a mistake. An unforgivable, irreversible mistake that would cost him his job, and probably his life too: he had fallen in love with Klaus Hargreeves.


End file.
